Comic Con 2012: Cosplay

For hundreds of nerds every year, Comic Con is more than just a convention where they can hear about the newest entertainment tidbits or collect exclusive toys. Instead, the trip is more of a pilgrimage, a chance to blend in with 140,000 like-minded people in a world where some may find difficulty expressing themselves in everyday society. At SDCC, social norms are relaxed, and fans will often find extremely unique and creative ways to show their passion for these arts (within the admittedly fuzzy realm of good taste, of course).

Perhaps the most popular form of expressing their creative side is known as Cosplay. Short for "costume play," the best way to describe the art is that it is Halloween with specific characters in mind. Rather than dressing up as a generic ghost or pirate, cosplay draws on the idea of living life as a character from a movie, game, or any other type of popular or geek medium. For the poorer or less-enthused, this can simply be throwing on a shirt with Superman's logo on it and finding a cheap red cape to tie around their neck. For the professional cosplayers - and, yes, there can very much be a business behind the phenomenon - costumes can cost upwards of thousands of dollars and take months of construction to make sure every minute detail is accurate to the source character.

As Comic Con has grown over the years, so has the many cultures and traditions around it. Cosplay is without a doubt one of the most popular traditions of the event. Even roaming outside the convention center, a visitor is bound to see a few Disney princesses, Mario and Luigis, Stormtroopers, and any number of anime or video game characters. Some are instantly recognizable whereas others choose to costume themselves in obscure characters as kind of in-joke known only to those who have seen the source before.

Sometimes, the hobby does take off in a grand scale. Many people who don such costumes are the designers as well. Holly Conrad was one such designer who enjoyed cosplaying before her Mass Effect costumes caught the eyes of Bioware, the game developer whose game she based her costumes on. After being featured in the yearly Masquarade event, where SDCC attendees get to see the biggest and best costumes of the year in a stage show, Bioware hired Holly to make official costumes for company events and supervise the upcoming feature film. Some girls even use cosplay to launch or sustain modeling careers, as is the case with well-known cosplayer Jessica Nigri.

For me, I do like to cosplay when I have time, but I unfortunately cannot afford any amazing costumes or props quite yet. Last year, I donned my best suit and brought along a replica top to go as Cobb from Inception. I can also be found wearing a Nerd Herd outfit most years in honor of the show Chuck. Mostly, though, I enjoy the photography aspect of it and enjoy seeing the amount of work and love that go into the various costumes I capture on screen every year. When I can do more than just take a quick snapshot, I like working with the models to take more professional shots, as recreating scenes or just generally having fun with the costumes is a great way to get creative and unique shots that normal portraits don't always offer. So, to wrap up my Comic Con blogs for this year, here are some of my favorite shots from 2012: